There was a similar question on here recently... In my case, I was lucky enough to have a swimming pool in my backyard. My doctor actually told me to get in the pool. However, public pools are not always properly treated with chemicals. Lakes, rivers, etc have bacteria in them. It's not you giving someone else germs or spreading bacteria from your HS that is concerning. But! If you have an open wound, be cautious. You don't want to add insult to injury and get a secondary infection from bacteria and germs in the water. 😉

omg Linda, you are so funny! I breastfed my son, and my husband was bugging me all the time to give him some in his coffee...and I did...lol

Chlorine does not kill everything. If the public health department finds out chlorine isn’t up to standard they can be fined but he seldom check. Even so here are antibiotic resistant pathogens now that survive chlorine even if it is up to par. So the pools are not kept correctly and people are notorious for peeing in the pool. Almost all public or medical pools say people must have waterproof plastic bandage covers on any sore or not be allowed in with a sore. But I see people all the time with plastic covers on boils and they fall off into the water. Ugh! MRSA and a deadly form of yeast is very rampant here because we have a lot of poor, overworked, unhealthy people in our local population. I get deadly staph every time i even go near a gym or pool here. I mean every time! . I swam in the ocean last year with HS pimple type boils and it didn’t seem to bother me at all. But I didn’t have connecting tunnels. I think people with connecting tunnels have issues even soaking in bath tubs and instead prefer showers because it makes it worse. I think the only water they use that gets inside the tunnels is saline irrigations to clean it out. I’m glad I didn’t progress that far, The ocean does have bacteria not to mention pollution. The biggest concern is the deadly vibrio flesh eating germ But they list beach warnings with signs and color coded flags when vibrio count is high. That happens after heavy rains when river water mixed with ocean water changes the ph of the water and allows more bacteria and it can be checked via beach condition websites. Also, many lakes and streams are no longer safe for swimming because of toxic algae blooms which will damage your liver and give a person cancer. It grows from the nitrogen that runs off of fertilized agriculture fields or fertilized lawns. I miss being able to swim and it was one of the things that kept the diseases of aging at bay. I can’t afford or physically maintain my own backyard pool. Sure do miss it!!! I think even if I had my own backyard pool I think I would still get boils from it because the chlorine breaks down my skin at my age and staph gets into pores. Didn’t bother me as a child but does now,

I get HS breakouts from public pools at gyms but no issues swimming in lakes or oceans. I pick up bad germs at the gym and the chlorine breaks down my natural skin barrier and destroys healthy skin flora. Absolutely do not recommend. People with infections are not supposed to ever swim in a swimming pool anyway because chlorine doesn’t kill everything and it is a risk to others. My gym pool does not allow simmers with sores and neither does my water therapy rehab at the hospital.

I don’t have to be funny, just tell the truth. All my stories 100% true. I’ve seen and heard everything that can be seen and heard.